Lambeth councillors trained to identify residents that ‘throw spanners in the works’
Hey ‘stakeholders’ – want to know how Lambeth Councillors are going about their business in order to identify how best to ‘engage’ with you?
Good news!
All Cllrs at the Town Hall are currently undergoing a corporate exercise in how strategic communication can benefit Cllrs.
Great!
Basically they are undertaking a crash course by those jolly bright sparks within Lambeth Communications in how to talk with residents.
Posting on the Lambeth Communications site, Paul Morris, the Head of Business and Creative Development stated:
“I’ve had a lot of success and saved time and effort by nominating early which stakeholders could be helpful to me in a campaign, which could throw spanners in the works, those which would back our cause, or those we need to shake up a bit because their involvement could be pivotal. Once you’ve done that, devising tactics becomes simpler.”
Divide and rule etc.
Why does any of this matter?
Well…
With three major Brixton regeneration schemes currently taking place in the form of Somerleyton Road, Brixton Central and Your Nu Town Hall, ‘engaging with stakeholders’ is the route in which decisions are perceived to have been made.
Paul adds:
“I’m an advocate of Johnson / Scholes’ model for campaign planning.”
Now we’re no experts in all of this corporate management model twaddle – and thank the chuffers for that – but a simple online search reveals that the Johnson / Scholes’ model for campaign planning is basically a blue triangle.
Plus also note:
“Firms might decide that they will launch an internet sales division without first carrying out any strategic analysis or choosing how the new strategy might compete.”
Substitute the words ‘internet sales division’ with ‘Your Nu Town Hall’ and the alarm bells might just to ring.
If a Cllr can use the Johnson / Scholes method to come to a preferred conclusion then it is a job well done.
This is just another reason as to why we are slightly suspicious of Lambeth Communications at the moment, the free market public trading arm of the internal Comms Team at Lambeth Hall.
The idea is to pimp out the PR pros that we already have working for the borough, and to cash in on their marketing skills around other local authorities.
We firmly believe in localism here – if you are a Lambeth Council employee then shouldn’t you really be concerned with looking after your own patch?
It’s also another interesting twist in how decisions are made within the Town Hall. Is it the democratically accountable Cllrs, or the apolitical officers behind the scenes that are playing a back seat driver role?
Blue sky thinking, innit?
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